


A Five Percent Chance

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Date, But in a place no one else is in, F/M, Face Sitting, Friends to Lovers, Lawyer Ben Solo, M/M, Old Friends, Oral Sex, Sex on a Green Screen, Slightly Public Sex, Weather Woman Rey, background stormpilot, it's going to happen, sex on the first date, so is it really public sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:51:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18376631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Ben is alone, and he likes it that way. He keeps to himself, and doesn't really want or need a relationship, but that doesn't stop his mother from trying to set him up with random people... until one day she sets him up with his childhood best friend... and both of them make it their mission for this to be the worst date ever... after all, they've got one hundred dollars promised to them by Leia if it is.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Melusine11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/gifts).



> HI SO THIS DEVIATES SLIGHTLY FROM THE PROMPT, but this was just where it wound up going. I hope this works just as well as what you had in mind cause this was actually really fun, and I hope you enjoy it!!!!

For some unknown reason, Ben’s mother really had a problem with the fact that he was thirty and still single. Maybe not a  _ problem _ , but she certainly pestered him about it at every chance she got. Every time they were together for a family reunion or some other reason — like when she wanted to get lunch and he lived the next town over — she brought up how all of his friends were engaged or married. 

Poe had married that  _ lovely boy, Finn, from the office down the street _ , and Armitage was engaged to his best friend Phas, and Ben was single and had been since college. Sure, he’d been on the odd date or two, but he’d never really felt attachments to any of those people when he’d gone out with them. They had been very unsuccessful attempts that usually ended in an awkward “I just don’t see things going anywhere between us,” from him. 

In truth, Ben was married to his work. He spent way more time in the office than he needed to, and the whole world knew it. His mother blamed work as the reason he never got out, said he was using it to avoid meeting people and making connections, and while she was technically right, he still loathed to be called out in such a manner. He’d told her repeatedly to stop, too, but Leia was bound and fucking determined. 

His father on the other hand, only watched those interactions with a barely disguised snicker.  _ Thanks, dad.  _

That night was no different. He’d come home for the weekend to have dinner with his parents and meet a client — at least, that was the excuse he always made to hang out with the golden retriever, Chewie, they’d adopted to fill his empty space in the house — and they’d been midway through eating the salmon Leia had cooked when his mother spoke up. “Ben, have you met anyone recently?”

He nearly choked on his wine from how suddenly the question had come about, but managed to swallow the red liquid before setting the glass down on the polished, dark wood of his mother’s table. “What?”

“Have you met anyone recently?”

Han nearly groaned. “Give the kid a break, Leia, you ask him this every time. The answer is always no.”

Ben gestured to his father and nodded. “Exactly, let’s leave it at that and move  _ on  _ .”

His mother folded her hands over the table. “I just… I bring it up because… Do you remember Maz Kanata?”

“Of course I do,” he answered honestly. How could he forget? With his parents’ busy lives growing up, Ben had spent many days at Maz’s house growing up when his parents had been too busy working to look after him post-school day. So he’d bonded with the eccentric older woman who lived down the street, and later, he’d bonded with the teenager she’d started fostering when he was sixteen. A teenager who would today be — “No.”

“Ben, I haven’t even finished my sentence…”

“But I already know what you’re trying to do, mother, and the answer is  _ no _ ,” he told her. “I’m not interested in dating anyone. I’ve told you about a dozen times. Especially not… Rey Kanata.”

“Why? What’s wrong with Rey Kanata?” Han asked curiously, sipping his own glass of wine. 

Nothing, really, but they’d been best friends in high school, grown distant during college, and now only spoke if they ran into one another at the grocery store. Those days he only saw her when she was on camera, reporting on the weather in front of a green screen that told the local temperatures. Rey was now a meteorologist and he was a lawyer. They’d gone down wildly different career paths. 

Just what in the hell did his parents think they’d be able to build from what was virtually nothing?

“I didn’t even say anything,” Leia said, putting her hands up. “I just meant to ask if you’d met anyone.”

“It  _ sounded  _ like you were about to try and talk me into going out with someone when you know damn well I want to be alone,” he muttered as he plucked a piece of spinach into his fork. “I don’t care about dating anyone. I don’t want to… I’m happy the way I am.”

His mother looked at him skeptically, then she raised a glass of wine to her lips. “If you insist, Ben.” She then laced her fingers together. “But How is life anyway?”

“Leave the kid alone, Leia,” Han grumbled. “He already hates us enough as us.”

“We don’t get to see our son often, Han I just want to know how he’s doing.”

Ben shook his head, certain he looked tempted to leave right then and there, but something — though he couldn’t tell what it was — compelled him to stay. “I’m fine… I’m honestly… honestly fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”

As he looked over at her though, he could tell his mother was still concerned, hiding it behind a thinly veiled expression on her face. Emotions had always shown through her eyes, and this moment was no exception. “If you say so, Ben,” she replied, then she cleared her throat. “But… when are you going home? I was hoping you and I could get dinner before you left. Maz reopened her cantina, and I’d been wanting to go—“

“I’ll go with you to the cantina, mom,” he said, what almost amounted to a smile growing on his face as he watched her eyes soften. “But I leave on Sunday.” 

Both Han and Leia nodded. “And it’s already Friday night,” the former of the two said, taking another, slightly suspicious looking sip of his drink. “How time flies.”

Ben’s eyebrows furrowed as he watched them looking at one another, but he didn’t think too much of it. His parents had always seemingly had this weird ability to communicate telepathically — or rather, they were as close as he supposed people could get. They had just come to some sort of conclusion together, and their son knew no matter what he did he wouldn’t find out what it was until they were ready to tell him. 

“It’s a plan, then,” Leia told him after a while. “I’ll meet you at the cantina tomorrow at seven?”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, it’s a plan.” Then he dove back into his meal, oblivious to the mischievous stares his parents were exchanging right in front of him. 

*

That night, Ben was restless as he channel surfed in his parents’ guest bedroom, casually passing channels he didn’t care about — and petting the golden retriever that wasn’t supposed to be in his bed  — until he heard one familiar voice that had become the topic of conversation earlier that day. The local news station was covering the week’s weather, going over the news of the day one last time before everyone watching — and the employees — went to bed, and there she was, the girl his parents had told him so much about. 

_ “And tonight things are looking to get a little on the cold side with temperatures dipping into the low thirties and a wind chill of twenty five degrees _ , _ ”  _ she was saying as she gestured to the city of Coruscant on her green screen map, a professional smile parting red lips that matched a similarly colored dress that looked perfectly tailored for office wear. She looked absolutely fantastic, if he were being honest, but even if his mother weren’t joking, Ben was absolutely committed to being alone. He didn’t need anyone. He didn’t. If he got lonely, he’d get a fucking dog. He didn’t need another person. He didn’t. 

_ “It’ll get warmer as the week goes on though, be ready for it. Things are about to change.”  _

The weather changed all the time, Ben noticed. It would be cold one day and hot enough to warrant a tank top the next. People changed a little less, and as much as his mother might have wanted him to shift his opinions on needing people, he was bound and determined not to need anyone. Not even Rey Kanata and her cute red dress could change that. 

He wouldn’t let them. 

As Rey moved on to talk about the weather for the remainder of the week, Ben leaned his head into the pillow, and sighed, closing his eyes as he slowly drifted off into sleep with Chewie snoring softly in his arms. 

_ “And now back to you, Rose, for our evening news…”  _ Was the last thing he heard before falling asleep. 

*

He woke up the next morning to that same voice blaring from the TV that he’d forgotten to turn off. A groan escaped him as he blinked awake, the screen a vivid blur of shocking blue light as he slowly came to. The world was just too fucking bright for a minute, and Ben couldn’t quite tell what was real. All that he could focus on was that deep and admittedly charming British accent sounding out from his TV as she talked about the local traffic jams. 

As Ben’s eyes slowly adjusted to the light, he finally caught sight of Rey’s.bright smile and brilliant hazel eyes lined with a sharp wing that brought out their shape enough for him to see it even with his sleep weakened eyes. Unlike the night before, she was a vision in baby blue, and shit, he didn’t want to find Rey attractive purely out of spite, but if he were being honest, his former friend had grown up looking like something off a movie screen. 

_ “Today we have an accident off interstate sixty five causing delays southbound toward Naboo,”  _ she was saying on the screen.  _ “If you’ve got work at eight, well, I’m afraid the time to leave would’ve been half an hour ago.” _

Ben got a bit of a chuckle out of that, then he sat up, listening as Rey moved on to the weather.  _ “As for this morning's weather, it may be what’s causing the delays. Wind chills in the mid twenties have caused black ice formations along most major roads overnight and school delays until well into this morning.” _

Well that sounded just fucking delightful. Hopefully the weather would clear up before he left for home in Naboo the following afternoon but if not… he’d manage. He wouldn’t enjoy it, but he’d manage. 

_ “The sky will be partly cloudy with a chance of rain at about five percent. By day’s end, we should be seeing perfect early spring weather.” _

Oh, he certainly hoped so. As Rey continued giving the local weather reports, Ben rolled out of bed and dressed for the day. That afternoon, he’d be visiting a client who worked in the downtown area of Coruscant before he went out to dinner with his mother, and thus that day he couldn’t just dress as normal Ben he had to be  _ lawyer  _ Ben, and _ lawyer _ Ben didn’t exactly wear the most comfortable of suits. 

Rey’s deep voice and brilliantly colored eyes accompanied him through his morning routine, then midway through buttoning up his shirt Rose Tico replaced her to give the morning news. For whatever reason, he was able to focus on what he was doing better after that, and fixed his mismatched buttons once the woman his mother had brought up at dinner the night before was gone. 

There was nothing spectacular about her, he told himself. Ben was only fixating like he was because his mother had mentioned the prospect of dating her and thus his brain had started to think about Rey in such a manner. If Leia hadn’t brought her up the night before, surely he wouldn’t have noticed the woman who gave Coruscant and Naboo their daily weather reports, right?

He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, he was going to be late for breakfast if he dawdled for too long and his mother would kill him before he even got the chance to  _ consider  _ changing his mind on dating anyone else. 

Hurriedly, he threw on his suit jacket, and rushed into the bathroom to make sure he didn’t look too out of place. By the mercy of what must have been god, the only thing that was even slightly off was his hair, which he’d thoroughly mussed up in his sleep, making him look a way he hadn’t since the last hookup he’d had in law school. A passing thought occurred to him that he didn’t actually look half bad like this, and maybe he ought to try getting himself back out there for at least casual flings, but then he quickly laughed it off. 

He didn’t need casual flings. He didn’t need anything but himself. Ben was alone, and he was content with that. Anything else at this point would just prove his mother — and his father, though Han was more subtle about it — right, and his pride couldn’t take that sort of hit. 

At least his mother had backed off of trying to get him to date Rey, he thought as he grabbed a comb off the bathroom counter, and ran it through his wavy hair, watching it bounce back into shape every time it straightened out. There had been one point in his life when that would’ve made him insecure, but nowadays, he didn’t care nearly as much. It wasn’t like he had anyone to impress with it anyway. 

Still as his day went on, he suddenly grew suspicious of how quickly his mother had backed off on the idea of his dating Rey. Through his meeting with his client, he felt distracted, though he managed to get his work done, wondering just how in the hell he’d managed to get her to back down without much of an argument. It wasn’t like Leia Organa to give up anything without a fight… 

He’d just have to ask her about it over dinner. 

Still, time seemed to be passing him by more and more slowly to the point where it almost felt as if someone was slowing down the clock to piss him off, like it was personal somehow. Ordinarily, Ben wouldn’t have cared, but there was something weird going on that day he just couldn’t put his finger on. 

By the time six thirty rolled around, he was sat behind the wheel of his car, sitting in one of many traffic jams Rey had predicted for the afternoon, and he was impatiently drumming his fingers against the car’s steering wheel. As the jam came to a stop again, he reached down for his phone, typing out the world’s fastest text to his mother while he prayed the traffic wouldn’t move again until it was done. 

**I’ll probably be late. Massive jam on 65. Sorry.**

He then set his phone down, only to pick it up again when he heard his phone vibrate, then he set it back in the cup holder when he saw that she’d only sent a thumbs up emoji. Guilt settled in over him as traffic crawled forward a little more, and he sighed as he palmed his forehead with one hand. In hindsight, he should’ve left sooner, but  _ fuck _ , would it really have made that much of a difference?

He had every reason to doubt that even if he’d left half an hour earlier, he still would’ve pulled up to Maz’s new cantina late. In fact, that wound up being precisely what happened. Traffic crawled so slowly, that it was fifteen minutes past seven by the time he pulled into the parking lot across the street from the cantina. He shot another apologetic text to his mother, but received nothing in response. 

_ Odd.  _

Despite her sudden radio silence, Ben made his way out of the parking deck, and into the cold, Coruscant air. The wind had died down considerably since that morning, and now the weather had warmed up to the low fifties, but everyone he passed was still wrapped up in a heavy coat as of just the memory of the chilly weather was enough to render them a shivering mess. He would’ve found it funny if he weren’t in the exact same boat. 

Shaking his head at the thought, Ben glanced up through the windows of the cantina as he made his way across the crosswalk connecting the parking deck to the restaurant. Everything seemed normal from the outside, except… he couldn’t seem to find his mother anywhere amongst the sea of faces lit by lighting that was only a bit brighter than that of a Cheesecake Factory. Leia was never late to anything ever, not even if traffic could try and stop her, and instantly Ben knew something was awry. 

It didn’t take him long to figure out just what that was. Not fifteen seconds into his search, he spotted a familiar pair of pink lips sipping at a glass of iced water while a pair of hazel eyes remained half lidded from boredom. He’d been seeing that face all day, and hearing her voice in his head. Rey Kanata  — still in her blue dress — was at the cantina, and suddenly all the puzzle pieces fell into place. 

_ He’d been set up.  _

His mother had never backed down on that date; she’d just switched the tactics she’d used to trick him into going. A grimace grew on his face as he finally finished crossing the street, then he ducked off into a corner just outside the entrance, pulling his phone out of his pocket in an angry rush that nearly sent the damn thing flying. Ben didn’t even bother going into his contacts to call his mother, he just dialed the number he knew by heart and pressed the phone to his ear while he waited for it to ring. 

Luckily for him, she never let her phone ring for long unless she hated the person calling. “Hello?” her voice called out after the first ring was only half over. 

“What the  _ hell _ , mother?” he practically hissed. “I ask to have dinner with you and you set me up on a blind date?”

“It’s not blind,” Leia protested. “You know Rey. She’s a nice girl.”

“Yeah, well asking for my permission would’ve been nice.”

“Would you have said yes if I asked?”

“No… but my point is, I don’t need anyone. I’m not going in there.”

“Nonsense, do you really want to leave her waiting in there forever? She’s expecting Maz. Do you really want her to have to wait for hours to find out why she was stood up?”

Ben groaned as he leaned his head back against the firm, brick wall. “Well, I don’t want to date her, but I guess she deserves better than that.” Another sigh left his lips as he wiped his face clean or absolutely nothing with his palm. “You owe me, though.”

“Hmm… I don’t know…” Leia paused, seeming to think for a moment. “How about this? You take Rey on that date, enjoy your dinner with her, and if you hate it, I’ll owe you one hundred dollars. If you love it, you’ll owe me.”

“One hundred dollars?” he asked, knowing full well that would fulfill his Starbucks budget for at least five days. “Okay, I’m saying yes, because I know I’ll hate it and probably make her hate me by the end of the night.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” Leia replied. “Have fun.”

“Don’t count on it,” he mumbled, then he hung up bitterly, pressing the end call button a bit more forcefully than he probably had to. 

He put his face in his hands for a few more seconds after he pocketed his phone, then he took a deep breath, and glanced at the entrance once more. Ben Solo was an adult. He could do this. Any grown man would march in there and take Rey on that fucking date like a champion, and he wouldn’t complain. So why was this so hard for him?

Another groan escaped him, then Ben pushed himself off the wall, and walked into the cantina, avoiding the eyes of the staff as he made his way up to Rey’s table. He wasn’t sure how to approach the very awkward subject at hand, but he was going to have to figure it out soon, because he was getting closer and closer, and suddenly he could read her menu over his shoulder, and suddenly —

“Ben?” she asked softly, looking up at him as he stared down at her from where he stood. 

He nodded awkwardly, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to calm the sudden nerves that had swept over him. “Yeah, uh… hi.”

“Oh my god, it’s been years!” she cried delightedly, then she gestured for him to sit. “How are you?”

“I’m good…” he said slowly, still trying to figure out the best way to put what was happening between them into words. “Uh… how are you?” It wasn’t the worst thing he could say, but he knew he hated small talk. It wouldn’t surprise him at all if she was exactly the same way. 

“I’m good, I’ve just been waiting for my mum to get here for nearly twenty minutes…”

_ Aha!  _ There was his opening. “Yeah… about that…” He awkwardly reached up to scratch his head. “There’s been a bit of a…”

Realization dawned on Rey’s features, then disappointment as she placed her hands on the table. “ _ Fuck, _ ” she breathed, then she met his eyes. “Our mothers… they colluded on this, didn’t they?”

Ben nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he replied bitterly. “Yeah, they did.”

“Don’t tell me, your mother thinks you’re too lonely and wants you to date every person in the country until you find the perfect one?”

“Yep, pretty much,” Ben grumbled, then his brows furrowed. “Wait, yours, too?”

“Yes! She won’t leave me alone about it! It’s non-fucking stop!” Rey leaned back into her seat, and took a sip of her waiter as she almost laughed at her own rotten luck. Ben gave her a sympathetic smile, knowing that look too well from having given it himself on multiple, terrible blind dates. “And now she’s got me set up with you, and we… you I actually like — not in  _ that _ way —  and it’s awkward.”

“It is, Yeah,” Ben said, feeling a blush creep up his cheeks, then he reached for the glass a waiter had set out for him. “It’s different when it’s another stranger, but when it’s you… when it’s my former best friend… this is just… this is not how I pictured us talking to one another again.”

“Absolutely not, I would’ve been fine if our families did thanksgiving together or something and I saw you that way, but this is just… this is honestly a bit rude.”

“I agree,” he replied, then he scoffed. “And I’m so fucking tired of my mother’s meddling. I am happy by myself. I don’t need anyone. If I ever want someone in my life I can change my mind on  _ my terms.” _

Rey’s eyes lit up at that. “Yes! Thank you! Oh my god, I knew there was a reason we were friends, we’re almost the same person,” she said, then she reached out, casually smacking his arm like she used to when they were teenagers. It took both of them a second to remember the distance they’d unintentionally put between them, and they both shrank back from the touch. “Sorry.”

Ben shook his head. “No, I’m sorry,” he replied, then he sipped his water. “I shouldn’t have let so much time pass since the last time I talked to you.”

“Nor should I,” she said, her pink lips parting into a warm smile. “How about this? We turn this stupid date around and catch up? Get back to being the dumb arses who pulled the most legendary senior prank of all time?”

He threw his head back and laughed at the memory. “You know, I think I can still smell silly string sometimes when I drive by our high school.”

“Me too,” she admitted with a giggle. 

Both of them were smiling now, laughing with one another like no time had passed at all. Their relationship had merely been put on pause, just waiting to be brought back to life until later, and now they’d pressed play. Now they were back, but would they stay that way? 

“So, how’s the news job going? You seem comfortable on those cameras.”

Rey shrugged. “It’s… it’s decent…” she said, then she shook her head as a waitress approached their table. “You mind if we just get queso and chips? I’m not hungry.”

“Neither am I.”

“Perfect.” With that, she ordered the appetizer once the waitress reached them, then she turned back to face Ben, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sorry that was awkward, I just don’t like to talk about work on dates.”

“This isn’t a date,” he pointed out. 

Her eyebrows shot up. “Right… it isn’t… so… what do we do instead? You want to get out of here when we finish our chips and go get a beer?”

Ben thought about this for a moment. After all he’d been through that night with his mother and the very nearly awkward encounter with Rey, he deserved to drink like there was no tomorrow, but… there was something else he had to address first. “Before we do anything else, though,” he said suddenly, remembering the bet he’d made with his mother. “My mother had to make a bet with me to get me to walk in here.”

Rey’s expression grew mischievous as she took a sip of her water. “ _ Oh? _ ”

“Yeah, she did. I didn’t want to go in for the reasons I specified earlier, right?”

“Right.”

“But she desperately wanted me to go on this date, so before we get too far into catching up, I need to tell you what’s on the line.”

She leaned forward over the table, placing her palm down on it with enough force to rattle their glasses. “Hit me.” A wicked grin parted her lips. “What are the stakes?”

“One hundred dollars… if I hate this date, I win the bet and thus the one hundred dollars I will gladly split with you when this is all over,” Ben told her. 

“And if you lose?” 

He shrugged. “I lose a hundred dollars.” Ben shifted in his seat, leaning forward much the same way she had as he prepared to speak again. Of course, this new position also had the added, unfortunate bonus of bringing his face that much closer to Rey’s, and oh, fuck, she was even prettier up close. There were almost more freckles on her face than there were stars in the sky, and in the hazel of her irises he could see a plethora of colors combining to create one as they all met in the black middle that was her pupil. There was a playful sort of quality to those eyes he’d never quite noticed as a seventeen year old, but he certainly noticed it now. 

Suddenly, he became a lot less confident of his ability to win this stupid bet. 

“Ben?” she asked after a moment, seeming concerned by his sudden loss for words. She had every right to be, but  _ fuck _ he’d hoped that moment hadn’t been as long as he’d thought it was. 

“Ah, shit, sorry,” he muttered, then he shook off the last of the haze that clouded his judgement. “Um… basically I’m proposing that we go about this as a normal date — while still rekindling our friendship, of course — but we try our absolute best to make it suck. I mean we make this the worst date in all of history. We talk about work and politics and we go  _ in  _ on each other’s least favorite foods. We talk about our parents and how miserable we are and we make it suck as a romantic evening, but as something platonic…”

“It’s perfect.” Rey was beaming at him then, nodding enthusiastically as she offered him her hand. “I love it, I’m in.”

“Really? You are?”

“Yeah, I’m in. Anything to spite our meddling mothers into the next century,” she said as he took her hand, and shook it vigorously. “I’d love to see them try again after this. If we can’t fall in love with our high school best friend like it’s some romantic comedy, who the hell  _ will  _ we fall for?”

Oh, she understood him all too well. At least platonically, he already fucking loved this woman. “Exactly,” he breathed as he released her hand, and leaned back into his seat. “This is perfect. Thank you.”

“No, thank you.” She took her water glass in one hand, then raised it into the air. “To the worst date ever.”

A laugh escaped him, then he grabbed his own glass, and tapped it against hers. “To the worst date ever,” he repeated, then they both drank. “May it suck eternally.”

With that, they both set down their glasses, and Rey raised her hand in the air, causing his brows to furrow in confusion. “What are you doing?”

“Flagging down the waiter, if we’re both going to have the worst date ever, we’re going to need a bit of liquid tolerance.”

“I think traditionally it’s called liquid courage.”

“Not tonight,” she replied, then when a waiter caught sight of her, she lowered her hand. “Tonight, it’s going to help us survive the world’s worst date… so… two margaritas?”

Ben grinned. “Perfect,” he said, then Rey was ordering their drinks, and as the waiter walked away, she smiled at him, and suddenly he started to wonder if maybe on accident, the world’s worst date just might wind up becoming the world’s best. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh... it got smutty.
> 
> **also I know nothing about local news stations, this is probably completely inaccurate. There's probably a lot of inaccuracies in this, actually, but we're not here because we want a perfect representation of what our local weathermen and women do.

By the time they left the cantina without actually having ordered a thing of legitimate sustenance, Ben was tipsy and having more fun than he’d had in years. His whole body felt alive, like he was made of electricity, but it also ached from laughing so hard.

In the years since they’d separated, he’d forgotten that Rey could be so funny. This was a crime for which he was punishing himself for internally, and she had made him pay for it by forcing Ben to talk about his job for the remaining half an hour that they stayed there. When she shifted that conversation with her usual banter and wit, he’d laughed so hard he’d cried, and she’d been forced to bring up ideas for how they’d make the date bad again. 

Despite how much fun they were having, there was money on the line, and they couldn’t afford to lose it. At least, Ben couldn’t. Rey wouldn’t be harmed either way, but he reckoned if he was forcing her to go along with this, he owed her a part of his earnings when they finally won. 

Their sudden turn toward fun had led them to decide to explore one another’s work places, things Ben knew he should never do on a first date from experience with the few people he’d dated. Hers had wound up being the closer of the two since she worked in town, and so they’d gotten into their cars, driving separately, one behind the other in an attempt to make it even worse by not driving together. 

Of course, the cruel universe being what it was, didn’t allow things to be so simple. While following behind Rey, they came upon a red light, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw his phone light up with a text from a coworker, and an idea popped into his head. He’d already pushed his luck with sending a text at a red light earlier in the night, but a call…

Temptation rose within him as he debated what he’d do next. If he talked to Rey, the two of them ran the risk of having a fun conversation and then enjoying what it was they were doing. But on the other hand, maybe he would slip up and say something stupid, this ruining the date and winning them the prize…

Without giving himself another second to think it over, Ben grabbed his phone, and called Rey, praying her number was still the same even though it had been years since they’d called one another as he put it on speaker, then set it back down in his cup holder. 

By the grace of all the gods he didn’t believe in, her deep, accented voice rang clear on the other end just after the second ring. “Miss me?”

“I’m bored,” he muttered, then the light turned green, and he watched as she surged forward, then he followed after a second later. 

“Ben, I think that’s sort of the point. We’re not supposed to be having fun. We’re supposed to hate this.”

“Okay, but… we also said we wanted to rekindle our friendship while we were out so… consider this part of that and not a part of our date.” He watched as her right blinker turned on, then he followed suit, and both of them skirted into the right hand lane in perfect unison. “This is strictly business, no pleasure.”

“Are you implying that there is or was pleasure at some point in the night?” she asked, her voice gaining a falsified innocence to it that had Ben smirking as he stared at the back of her head through her rear window. “Because that would mean we’ve lost that little bet of yours."

Ben scoffed. “Only if you want there to be. I’m the only one who loses if we actually have a good time. You get off Scott-free either way.”

“You make an excellent point, but I’m not an arsehole,” she pointed out, then she cleared her throat. “I won’t intentionally put you out one hundred dollars just because you’ve filled out that tall frame of yours and you have the hair of a Greek god.”

He nearly crashed his fucking car. “Are you… are you saying you find me attractive?”

“You’re nice to look at, I won’t lie,” she told him, then she took in an audible breath, which sounded like a heaving gasp for air that sent blood rushing straight to his groin. “But… first and foremost, I want to catch up with my best friend rather than any potential love interest, and I think my friend will find where we’re about to go really cool.”

“I’m not supposed to, though, that’s why we’re going here.”

“You’re not supposed to enjoy it as a romantic setting. Platonically? All cards are on the table, old friend,” she told him, then she put her blinker on again as they drove up to a tall building with a massive parking structure at its side. “We’re almost here. Just follow me and park by my side. You’re about to go behind the scenes, Ben Solo.”

“Am I even allowed to be back there?”

“Probably not, but the security guy sleeps on the job all the time and the janitor left an hour ago so…” He could practically see the shrug she gave as she paused. “You’ll be fine.”

“If you say so,” he said, then he reached for his phone as she pulled up to the parking lot’s entrance. “Alright, I guess this is the point where we hang up and talk in a few.”

Rey giggled lightly. “Guess so, just don’t miss me too much while you’re gone.”

Feeling his cheeks turn beet red, Ben awkwardly pressed his lips together, then nodded. “Yeah, okay, I won’t, um… bye.”

“Bye, Ben,” she sing-songed, her voice in a low, almost seductive pitch until the moment he hung up. 

Once she was off the line, Ben let out the breath he’d been holding, and felt his heart rate slowly return to normal. The night had barely begun and she was already making it difficult to focus on winning this stupid fucking bet. Since when had Rey gotten to be so charming? Since when had she started thinking he was… attractive? He wasn’t stupid, she’d given him a few appreciative once overs in the cantina and her tone throughout their call was definitely suggestive. In her defense, though, so was his, and he’d done the exact same thing to her. 

Both of them were definitely attracted to one another, and it was only this stupid bet and his desire to spite his mother standing in the way. Well, that and they were still working on relearning how to be best friends again, and that was ground they needed to tread carefully. So far, they were doing a decent job, but if they kept flirting the way they were… they’d lose the bet and probably their clothes by the end of the hour. 

Ben wasn’t entirely sure if that was a bad thing, and as he parked his car in the space beside Rey’s, he became more certain that it was actually good by the minute. One thing was certain at that point… their attempt to win that bet wasn’t going to last long either way. 

Once they were both parked, Ben took in a slow, steady breath before he opened his car door, and watched as she did the same. As they’d been doing throughout the night so far, both of them stepped out of their cars in perfect sync, and shut their doors while looking one another in the eyes. Maybe he was going crazy, but he thought Rey’s looked a touch darker as they stared into his, and he swallowed his nerves and desire as he returned the intensity of her stare. 

Without saying a word, both of them turned to lock their cars, and then made their way out into the main part of the parking lot. “Where are we going?” Ben asked. 

A grin appeared on her face, parting those delightfully pink lips of hers as she made her way towards the lot exit. Ben didn’t hesitate to follow, running after her a little ways when he spent a second too long just staring slack jawed at her as she walked away. “I see you’re still a little slow then.”

His brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“When we were younger, whenever you had a shock you’d always just stand there for a second to process it,” she told him as he finally met her stride for stride. “You still do that now.”

“Yeah,” he replied sheepishly. “Guess so. Some things never change.”

“No, they don’t.” She sighed almost wistfully as she reached into the pocket of a black leather jacket, then produced an access card as they came upon a door. “Do you still love hiking, too? I remember you used to make me come with you to hike Mount Chandrila every fall.”

Ben snorted with laughter at the memories. “Yeah, I do, but I don’t get to go as often as I’d like.”

“Maybe we should go together sometime,” she told him as she swiped her access card at the door, then she opened it, and ushered him inside. “You know… as friends…”

“Yeah,” Ben replied as they led one another through the corridors of Coruscant’s weather station. “As friends.”

Both of them fell a little quiet after that, neither of them speaking until Rey brought them up to a room with a grey door that also required her access card. As she swiped the thin, plastic card through the black device strapped to the side of the door, she gave him a broad grin. “We should’ve gone to your workplace, this is actually sort of cool.”

“Oh well, maybe we can do it later if we have too much fun,” he told her, then she laughed at him again, and pushed the door open. 

When he stepped inside, Ben instantly knew this was a mistake, and he was about to have a damn good time with Rey. Nearest to where he stood was the green screen she predicted the weather from each day, a camera still positioned in front of it as if it were ready to go at any given moment. On the far side was the desk where the other reporters would give the morning news, and throughout the room, various monitors and equipment were placed in a somewhat organized fashion. Most of it had been turned off, but spotlights of sorts remained on the desk and the green screen, as if they were just waiting for him and Rey to get there. 

A delighted laugh escaped him as he walked into the room, making his way to the desk on the far side before sitting in the tall, office chair style seat waiting for him on its far side. Rey rolled her eyes at him as she closed the door behind them, walking forward, and crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at him. “Having fun?” 

“I’m about to be,” Ben replied, then he folded his hands over one another on the table, and stared into the nearest camera, then he cleared his throat, summoning forth his best imitation of a newscaster. “Good evening, Coruscant, I’m Ben Solo, and I’m about to feed you a string of lies.”

Rey scoffed, stepping forward again as she put her hands on her hips. “It’s the local news, Ben, I know these people. We don’t lie here. Look at the big leagues for that.”

“Update, That first statement was my only lie…” He paused, wondering where he’d go from there as the corners of her mouth tilted upward, providing him another glimpse of her admittedly very charming smile. “... shit what do they usually report on?”

“Whatever we get told to,” Rey said, stepping forward again until she was in the light shining down on the desk. “But since we’re not live, just do whatever you want… or stop making a fool of yourself.”

Ben hummed his acknowledgement, then he adjusted his posture, stiffening slightly as he looked at Rey. “Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have Rey Kanata with us,” he began, and the woman in front of him burst into a fit of giggles. “This just in, she’s laughing at me, I don’t think she thinks I’m a good reporter.”

“Ben, please…”

“And she’s probably right… but at least she’s one.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Solo,” Rey replied as she came around to the same side of the counter with him, then she placed a hand on his shoulder. “Nowhere.”

Ben smirked at her as she took the seat beside him, then she leaned her elbow on that very same shoulder she’d just touched. “Are you sure about that?” 

She seemed to think on this for a moment, then she leaned forward, invading his space perhaps a touch too closely to consider the move platonic. “Absolutely,” she told him, then she started pulling back, but he noticed her eyes flicker downward, and he wasn’t completely inept. He knew what that little stare meant even if it was impossibly short. 

“Rey…” he said, unsure where his courage had come from, then he swallowed back the last of his nerves. “I thought… I thought you just wanted to be…”

“Yeah, I know, and I did…” She shook her head, her eyes drifting back up to meet his. “But… I don’t know… I’m not saying we can’t still be friends, but… every time you open your mouth it just makes me want to kiss you, and I can’t get that thought out of my head. So maybe… maybe we ought to try… unless you don’t want to.”

“I want to,” Ben breathed, barely even consciously aware that the words had left his mouth as his heart raced within his chest. “Rey…”

“Can I kiss you, then?” she asked softly, then he nodded, and he heard her breath shudder as it left her lungs. 

Rey came in slowly after that, her hand reaching up to weave its way into his hair as she caressed the base of his skull, then she began to lean between the space that separated their chairs. It felt like time was moving in slow motion as she shifted toward him, leaning in almost hesitantly even though he’d given her permission to kiss him. The wait slowly began to kill him as he watched her through hooded eyes, the sound of their breathing filling the entire room as they pulled toward one another like magnets. 

Eventually, the tension grew too great, and Ben couldn’t take waiting anymore. Without giving it a second thought, he surged forward, taking her face in his hands as he captured her lips between his. She gasped in shock at the initial contact, but then melted against him, her hand tightening its grip in his hair as she returned it, and he felt her smile against his lips. 

In all the years they’d been friends, he’d never thought they’d wind up there. Sure, people had teased them about getting together as they always did when two people of the opposite gender were friends, but he’d never seriously considered it until that exact moment. A part of him had expected it to be extremely awkward if they ever got together, but in spite of its slow beginnings the kiss was quickly gaining steam, becoming anything but awkward. They fit together perfectly, moved in harmony with one another, and kissed with a smooth, almost practiced skill. It was as if they were made to do exactly this all along. 

They barely even stopped to take a breath as Ben’s hands slid down to encompass her waist, fitting perfectly in that curve between her hips and rib cage as he slowly stood up off of his chair, and leaned over her to deepen the kiss, his tongue sweeping over her lower lip as he wedged a leg between hers. A soft, musical sounding little moan escaped her as she pressed her body against his, fingers gripping a little tight in his hair before they began to card through it, then they settled down over his shoulders, and the kiss began to cool down. 

Ben pulled back from the kiss after a few more seconds to gasp for air, both their chests heaving in the aftermath as he leaned his forehead against hers, and his hands held steady at her waist. Rey’s slowly fell down to his chest as they stood there in one another’s space, both panting hard as they steadily began to pull apart, and dark brown met pure hazel. Smiles bloomed on both their faces, and he asked a silent question with his eyes as they both stared, wondering if she felt whatever it was he was feeling, too. 

After a while, Rey nodded, her smile reaching her eyes as he leaned in, and gave her another short, sweet, close-mouthed kiss. “I think we’re having fun,” he muttered, but the bitter tone he expected his voice to have with a sentence like that was lacking. 

A laugh sounded from her lips. “I think you may be right.” She then stood up from her chair, forcing Ben to step back into the desk as she moved. “But I’m not the one who’s going to be out one hundred dollars, so if it’s alright with you, I’d like to keep having fun…”

There was a suggestive tone to her voice that had Ben’s head absolutely spinning as she moved out from that minimal space between him and the desk, and grasped his hand in hers. He stumbled after her for the first few steps, but then found his footing as she led him over to the green screen, then she walked around to the monitor behind the nearest camera, and grinned. “Now that you’ve tried your hand at telling the daily news… show me how well you know the weather.”

Ben scoffed. “That’s not fair, I’m no meteorologist.”

“I’m mostly joking, Ben… just… trust me, you’ll enjoy this,” she told him, then she typed a series of commands into the keyboard in front of the monitor, and moved over to the camera. She flicked a switch on its side, then she moved back to the monitor, and he watched as another one flickered to life. 

Seconds later, the image of him in front of a radar map appeared on a different monitor, and he couldn’t help laughing joyously as he caught sight of it. At some point, he’d once daydreamed about doing this exact thing, but he’d never thought it’d be possible. He’d always thought it’d just be a pipe dream, and nothing would ever come of it. Thanks to Rey, his silly little childhood fantasy had just become reality. 

“Oh, this is cool,” he breathed, waving his hand over a thick, red and yellow band of thunderstorms. “ _ Fuck _ , you really get to do this every day, huh?”

Rey grinned in response to his reaction, then she crossed her arms again. “Oh yeah, I do,” she told him, then she paused. “And before you ask, no, it never gets old. Especially when I forget to not wear green to work. I’m sure you’ve seen me do it a couple of times.”

“You did it last month, it was hilarious.” They both chuckled at that, then Ben sighed, and gestures vaguely to the map behind him, watching the monitor as he moved. “So this is what you do every day, huh?”

“Yeah,” she replied, then she gestured to her lips, where he took notice of the smudged pink of her lipstick. “But without all this.”

He snorted quietly. “I’m sure I don’t look much better.”

“No, you don’t,” she replied, then she walked out from behind the camera and monitor, but didn’t quite join him in front of the screen. “Speaking of… are you always going to kiss me like that or was that just a one time thing?”

Another laugh rumbled deep within his chest, and he quirked a coy eyebrow. “Why don’t you come over here and find out?” 

Surprise made itself known on her face, but she nodded, and walked over to join him in front of the screen. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as they stood together over the moving map of Coruscant’s weather, then she took his face in her hands, and pulled him down to her in another kiss. 

He closed his eyes as their lips met, hers caressing his this time as she bent him down to make up for their height difference. The second kiss was immediately as delightfully electric as the first, and Ben’s heart soared as she placed her palms against his chest while his arms wrapped around her waist. One palm splayed itself out over her back, and the other began to fist her hair in his hands, holding on tightly as if he were afraid she’d disappear.

As the kiss regained the same heat their first one had, Rey’s hands reached for the tie he wore around his neck, and she began to carefully undo his well tied knot. “Is this okay?” she asked, pulling away briefly to double check that she hadn’t crossed any lines. 

He found it rather endearing, though, and he nodded eagerly. “Absolutely,” he replied, then the hand over her back crept up to the top of her dress zipper, and gave it a tiny tug, allowing the golden metal to part just a scant few inches. “Is  _ this _ okay?” 

“Mmm, it’s more than okay,” she assured him, pressing another short kiss to his lips as she let the tie fall to the floor, and he undid the rest of her zipper in one fell swoop. 

“I don’t have a—“

“I’m on the pill,” she interrupted, then she paused again. “Are we both clean, then?”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, I think so,” he replied, then she began working on undoing his shirt buttons, and he lost all train of thought as his fingers skimmed up her bare back through the unzipped portion of her dress. His breathing grew increasingly hard as her own finger tips explored each tiny piece of his exposed skin beneath his shirt, but he forced himself to focus, bringing his hands up to the sleeves of her dress, then he slowly pushed them off her shoulders. 

A shaky breath left Rey’s lungs as he continued pushing the sleeves of her dress further down, and he watched as she kicked off her flats before letting go of the grip she had on his shirt to allow the fabric to fall all the way to the floor. With most of her clothing gone, all Ben could do was stare at the newly exposed skin, his eyes glued to the simple, black t-shirt bra she wore paired with underwear of a similar color that didn’t seem to cover much — well, it was a thong, but still — beneath a pair of nude pantyhose. 

She didn’t waste time, though, and as he was busy appreciating the contours of her abdominal muscles, Rey continued working him free of his shirt, undoing the button of his blazer as she went until an expanse of skin was exposed to the cool air of the studio. Ben continued staring as she slid her hands back up, palms gliding over the bare skin of his chest — and at one point, skimming over his nipples, which made his whole body shiver slightly —  as she copied the movements he’d made with her dress. 

Seconds later, his blazer and button down were both sliding down his long arms down to the floor, and once he was stripped of half his clothing, Rey looked at him curiously. “What?”

The hint of a smirk grew on her face as she looked at him, then she let her hands glide slowly up his biceps as she studied them thoroughly. “If I were to jump up… would you catch me? Would you be able to?”

Ben didn’t answer, he simply leaned forward to kiss her again, his arms wrapping around her waist while hers wound themselves around his neck as she did exactly what she’d said. He immediately shifted his grip, one of his hands coming up under one of her thighs as he continued kissing her, finding she almost seemed to weigh next to nothing in his arms. Or maybe he was just stronger than he thought. All those hours at the gym had to account for something, didn’t they?

Rey moaned softly into his mouth as her thighs wrapped around his hips, her feet resting over his upper thighs as he stepped backwards into a kneel, still supporting her in his arms as he began lowering her to the floor. He had  _ plans  _ for those tights she wore, but he was going to have to pay her back for new ones later. For now at least, he liked his plans and he was perfectly satisfied with them. 

As he set her down on the floor where the green screen drifted out around them, Ben gasped for air, panting for a few seconds as he slowly allowed his hands to drift down to the waistline of those tights. They locked eyes in that tiny little fraction of time, and he knew she understood his intent by the small nod she gave him as he began kissing her again, but he didn’t kiss her lips, no, he pressed his first kiss to the top of her neck at the juncture it made with her jaw. She hummed her satisfaction, her voice causing vibrations beneath his lips that had him trembling slightly as he slowly began planting his kisses lower, allowing them to fall on her neck over her pulse point, then over her collar bone. Her chest rose and fell beneath his lips, doing so at an increasingly fast pace as his kisses landed themselves in the valley between her breasts. This wasn’t a problem, though, since he was moving equally as fast on his descent south. 

Rey propped her head up on one hand, watching him as his hands began to tear at the threads binding her pantyhose, and he could hear the fabric coming apart as he kissed the skin that it exposed. His heart had never raced so fast as he tore them until he began to lower the remains over her thighs, pressing a bold, lingering kiss over the still clothed apex of her thighs before trailing his kisses along one of them instead. 

That one kiss had Rey’s entire body shivering beneath his touch, and he knew it wasn’t because the room was cold. He’d seen a thermostat on the way in. Neither of them would shake from cold in spite of how naked they were becoming. 

He barely concealed a laugh at that thought, but managed to completely remove her tights without making a fool of himself before he crawled back over her, and sealed his lips over hers once more. Both of them moaned almost the second they made contact, then Rey threaded her hands into his hair, deepening the kiss as she twisted her hips, forcing them to roll over as she kissed him passionately. Though they hadn’t even really started doing anything yet, he could already feel he was going to work up a sweat that night from how roughly she kissed him alone. 

The way she kissed him on the floor was nothing like the heated but soft kiss they’d shared behind the desk earlier, and instead felt more intense than gentle, more animalistic than tame. She kissed him like she knew exactly what they both wanted; the way they both desperately needed to be kissed. In all his life, he’d never been more ecstatic to be pinned beneath another person as she pressed him into the green ground. A moan escaped him into the kiss as he felt her hands leave his hair, but before he could mourn the contact, he realized her hands had fled downward to the waistband of her underwear, and he felt his head spinning even as she broke the kiss to remove them. 

Rey stared him down as she slid the little black fabric down her thighs, exposing the little thatch of hair between them as she kicked them aside near where her shoes had wound up, then she crawled back over him, but didn’t quite settle over his body like she had before. Instead, she reached down to brush a tiny strand of his hair out of his face, and grinned. “Ben, this may be a bit forward, but… since we’ve gotten to this point…”

“Yeah?”

“Can I… can I ride your face?” 

_ Oh fuck _ , he was going to fall in love with this woman, and for what she’d just said, he thought he ought to give up a thousand dollars rather than just a hundred. “Rey, I’ve been waiting for you to ask.”

At this, she let out a small giggle, then crawled forward, and his hands came up to grasp the backs of her thighs as she brought her apex over his face, causing his blood pressure to rise unhealthily as he watched her. From here, he could see the lights illuminating her silhouette, and it may have been the sexiest outline of a human being he’d ever seen. He smiled up at her appreciatively as he nudged her forward with his hands, then she was finally close enough for him to touch. If he wanted to, he could reach out and stroke her clit with his tongue from there, but he didn’t. Instead, he turned his head, and pressed kisses up the skin of her inner thigh, and she groaned above him as she fisted a hand in his hair, but didn’t grip it hard just yet. She knew as well as he did that the time for that sort of thing had yet to pass, even if she’d reach that point soon enough. 

After a few more seconds of teasing her, Ben pressed an open mouthed kiss to the apex of her thighs, and she gave him a low moan in response, encouraging him to keep going with that one, small sound. His tongue darted out between his lips, and he licked a stripe from her entrance to her clit, then took the latter between his lips, and began to suck, devouring the taste of her like a man starved. 

Already she was shaking above him; her grip in his hair tightening as she arched her head back, melting against him as he sucked furiously at her clit. “Ben,” she breathed, and his name was the most musical sound he’d ever heard falling from her lips like that. She gasped then, saying it again breathlessly as he moved his lips down, tongue stroking at her entrance as her voice rose in pitch. 

Though she couldn’t see it, Ben was almost smirking as he fucked her with his tongue, certain he looked a right mess with her thighs on either side of his head and whatever hair that wasn’t buried in her hands splayed out on the heinous green of the screen they were fucking on. He couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck about it though, he was too busy trying to make Rey come within an inch of her life on his face. 

“Ben,  _ fuck.”  _ She whispered the second word, and he laughed against her, the vibrations undoubtedly causing a new, delightful sense of pleasure to rise within her. He knew he was right when she grasped his hair more tightly, his name falling from her lips three more times as he moved his lips back up to her clit, his tongue gliding over it at what must’ve seemed like an agonizingly slow speed to her. 

A somewhat disgruntled moan fell from her lips, and he hummed against her skin, then took her clit into his mouth again, repeating what he’d done earlier as she leaned forward over him, blocking out most of the light he’d been able to see up until that point. He didn’t care about the loss of that either, though, and continued his work, pleasuring her with his tongue until he needed a moment to breathe. Rey was phenomenally responsive, soft little noises escaped her with every flick of his tongue, and each one drove him absolutely wild. 

By the time she warned him that she was getting close, Ben was achingly hard, and certain his cock was tenting his trousers as he continued eating her out with a sort of desperation, like he was afraid she’d disappear before she came on top of him. “Ben,” she panted, then something else incomprehensible left her as he began licking at her entrance again, shivering from how wet she’d become as the time had passed. 

Both of them were trembling as he brought her closer, pausing ever so briefly to breathe before diving back in, and teasing her until he felt her come undone above him, and she let out a moan loud enough he wondered if the whole city could hear them. Surely  _ that  _ would be enough to wake the security guard she’d told him about earlier, but that was only the briefest passing thought he had as he continued eating her out through her orgasm, tasting her through every second of it until she began to come down from her high. 

Rey shuddered as he lapped at her oversensitive clit once more before he released her from his mouth, and she leaned back against him, almost sitting over his chest before she crawled back over him. Both of them were completely out of breath, but she straddled his hips, and began reaching for the buckle of his belt anyway, as if she could steal more breath from his lungs than she already had. 

This time, it was her name that fell from  _ his  _ lips. This time it was him who was completely, utterly incomprehensible as she undid his belt, and moved on to the button of his trousers. “Rey,” he breathed, gasping desperately for air as she brushed her hand over his erection. “Oh my god…” His head slumped back against the ground, his heart racing faster in his chest as she then began to remove them, sliding the fabric over his hips with a sly but subtle grin on her face. 

“You just gave me the best orgasm I’ve ever had in my life,” she told him, and his ego sang in response. “I think I owe you a favor.”

“Only if you want to—“

“I want to,” she told him, lowering his trousers until his cock was free from its confines, then she seemed to be unable to wait any longer, and promptly gave up undressing him. With that, Rey crawled forward again, bending down to capture his lips with another searing kiss while one hand reached down in the space between them, and began to gently stroke his erection. 

A groan escaped him at the first contact between her hand and his cock, and he felt like jello beneath her as she kissed him.  _ Fuck,  _ where had she been all his life? She’d always been a friend of his, but now? Now he needed her to be more. He wasn’t sure he could survive this just being a one time thing. 

Another moan left him into the kiss as he felt her use the hand wrapped around his erection to line him up with her entrance, electricity sparking in his veins as she sank down onto him. Already it made his list of top ten sensations he’d ever felt — not that he’d ever given such a list any legitimate thought, but if he had, this would be on it — and though she’d only just started moving over him, he could tell his impending orgasm was going to have the same effect on him that Rey’s had on her. It was going to change him. 

She broke their kiss then as she finally sank most of the way down his shaft, then she crawled her hands back down to his chest, and stared down at him from where she was perched. They stayed like that for a moment, with Rey just staring at him and him staring right back, then she began to move. 

Having her ride him on that green screen should’ve felt awkward or weird, but if he were being honest, the experience was borderline holy. In spite of the shit lighting and the vibrant shade somewhere between lime and forest surrounding them, the pleasure she brought to his cock outdid anything that could’ve rendered it terrible. 

Rey rode him with a skill he wasn’t quite sure could be honed through much experience, and almost seemed to come to her naturally. She set a slow pace at first, seeming to need a moment to adjust to his length when they started out, but the longer it went on, the more quickly she moved until she remained stagnant at one that nearly had him arching back off the floor from how good it felt. 

He couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made him feel this way — hell, he couldn’t remember the last time  _ he’d _ made himself feel that way. His own hand was never going to compare to the feeling of Rey sheathed around his cock, it was never going to come close. “ _ Fuck,” _ he breathed as her hands reached forward, and wiped a developing bead of sweat off of his forehead. “Don’t ever stop.”

All she did in response was laugh, and as she ground onto him again, Ben got an idea into his head. She’d had him on the floor thus far — it was high time he turned the tables. A smile blossomed on his face, then as she bent down to kiss him again, Ben wrapped his arms around her waist, and shifted them, somehow managing to stay inside of her as he rolled them over so that he was on top. 

A shocked, but pleased expression crossed her face, quickly turning into a smirk as she reached up behind his head, fisting his hair again to pull him down into a kiss just as he began thrusting into her, groaning at the feeling this new angle brought to him. He broke the kiss as he resumed the intense, but not punishing pace she’d set a moment earlier, a lewd moan escaping him as her legs hooked around his hips, her heels resting just below his ass as she met him thrust for thrust. 

Until that night, he’d thought he was better off alone, and he didn’t need anyone, but the way Rey was fucking him…  _ fuck _ , he was starting to change his mind. Sex on the floor of the local news station shouldn’t have been that good. It should’ve been terrible like the other floor sex he’d had in the past, but for some fucking reason, it wasn’t. Maybe it wasn’t actually bad after all, or maybe he just hadn’t met the right person. Either way, as Ben began to kiss away the sweat beading on her brow, he knew this was one experience he fully intended on repeating, whether it was on that green screen or not. 

“Go faster,” Rey whispered into his ear, her grip in his hair tightening as she gasped sharply on the next thrust. 

“Are you sure?”

“God, yes,” she breathed. “Don’t you dare fucking stop.”

He laughed at that, and obeyed her command, picking up the pace ever so slightly as he rested his forehead against hers. Perhaps that was a touch too intimate, but the new speed at which he was thrusting into her had him losing control of his thoughts, of his inability to keep his vision straight as he brought them both back to the edge he’d taken her over earlier. 

All that left them after that was soft little gasps and the occasional loud, sharp cry of either a swear or the other’s name as Ben felt his own orgasm building within him. It wasn’t until he felt Rey come around his cock, and she said something sounding vaguely like his name as she clutched him tightly against her, though, that he finally let himself go. He buried his face into her neck, exhaling sharply as he came inside of her, unsure of how he kept going until the moment he felt his climax begin to wane. 

When he finally came down from his high, he slowly pulled out of her, only to surge forward, and kiss her again with the same intensity he had earlier as they’d undressed and sank to the floor. She hummed into the kiss, the sound sending his head into a tailspin as he kissed her, making him want to deepen it and keep going until he was hard again just so he could— 

Rey interrupted that train of thought as she broke away from the kiss to laugh, and when his eyebrows furrowed at her, she let go of his hair to point in the direction of the camera and the monitor, where he could see their mostly naked bodies lying over a band of thunderstorms conjured up by the green screen they’d just fucked on. Upon seeing it, he bit his lip, then he promptly burst into laughter as he rolled off of her, and both of them laid there, side by side, laughing like hyenas as their chests continued heaving, lungs fighting for breath that wouldn’t come. 

“So much for not having fun, huh?” Rey asked him as the back of her hand smacked teasingly against his bare chest. 

Ben snorted, then he shook his head. “So much…” he repeated, then he turned his head to stare at her, hypnotized by those hazel eyes again as he looked at her. “But I’ll tell you this, though…” He took in another breath, cut short by how fast his heart was racing, blood vessels starved of oxygen. “I have never been happier to lose one hundred dollars in my life.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, then he turned onto his side, and cupped her jaw with one of his hands before kissing her again, this time much more soft and gentle than the last, though still retaining a hint of the passion from earlier. He could feel her beaming into the kiss as she returned it, her hand turning over to rest properly on his chest, undoubtedly feeling his beating heart as they cooled down from their heated moment with this kiss. 

Suddenly, he was eternally grateful for having been set up, for having been forced to go on what was supposed to be an awful date. It had led him to possibly one of the top ten nights of his entire existence, and as he kissed Rey again on the floor of her workplace, he was fairly certain he didn’t want to be alone anymore after that. 

Maybe having someone by his side wasn’t so bad after all.   
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> END OF THE LINE!!!
> 
> And look at me! I finally finished an entire fic before the deadline! It's a miracle!
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much again for the prompt, even if I did take it in a SLIGHTLY different direction. 
> 
> And thank you to everyone else who read it, y'all are the best.

They didn’t get up for another several minutes. Only after Ben’s phone vibrated with a loud text in the pocket of his trousers did he finally decide they’d been lying on the floor for too long, and though he ignored whatever the text was — he couldn’t risk it being sent from his mother. Facing her wasn’t something he was ready to do yet — he did start putting his clothes back on. 

Rey groaned loudly as he rolled his pants back up over his hips, and did up the button and zipper before he crawled over to where they’d tossed their clothing, and threw her the dress and underwear she’d worn that night. Unfortunately for her, the pantyhose she’d worn were beyond salvageable, but in her line of work, he figured his odds were good that she had another pair and it wasn’t the end of the world. He wasn’t sure how guilty he’d feel about it even if they  _ were  _ her only pair. Ripping apart the sheer, dainty fabric had sent a thrill through him he hadn’t known he was capable of feeling, and  _ god damn it,  _ he wanted to do it again. 

Maybe this time, though, he’d do it to that dress she was zipping up. Either way, they were both about to have to learn how to sew if that night was any indication. Ben hadn’t known he’d needed to be fucked like that until it was happening, until Rey had him pinned to the floor and she was riding his face like she’d been doing it for ages. He’d had sex before, but it had never felt like that. In that moment, he’d forgotten about the others completely and remembered only the woman on top of him. 

No one else existed but them. The world outside kept on spinning, but they didn’t spin with it. For a moment, it was as if they were trapped in their little bubble, but as he looked down at the time on his phone, he knew that bubble needed to be burst. 

“It’s getting late,” he told her, a yawn leaving him involuntarily. “We should probably get going.”

A sly grin parted Rey’s lips. “You tired?” she asked teasingly as she adjusted the blue dress on her shoulders. “I thought we were only just getting started.”

Ben laughed as he walked back over to her, tying his tie as he went. “I just mean… we’ve pushed our luck already staying this long. Do you really want to keep trying it?” 

“Honestly, yes,” she replied, then she watched him fail to loop the tie through the knot, and she laughed as she gestured for him to hand it over. “Come here, I’ll get it for you.”

“Thanks.”

She cleared her throat as she worked to knot the tie, then she looked up, and met his eyes. “Ben, I had a lot of fun tonight,” she said, sliding it up until it was snug but not too tight against his neck, then she adjusted it beneath his collar. “I know you had a bet, but… I swear I didn’t mean to start --”

“It’s fine, I’m glad you did,” he told her, then he put his hands over hers, gliding them down so that they rested on his chest the second she finished her work at his collar. “Rey, I had a lot of fun tonight, too, and… if it’s not too much to ask…”

Rey was nodding before he could even think of the end of that sentence. “I’d love to do it again sometime.” She grinned at him almost wolfishly, then she leaned forward, and whispered in his ear with her pink smudged lips. “But maybe in your office instead of mine?”

A laugh escaped him as his hands drifted down to encompass her waist, and that was damn near an accurate description. Her midsection was small enough in his large hands there were inches between his thumb and other fingers. Shivers running through his body, Ben sighed. “I think we can make that work, but…” He stepped closer, and lowered his voice even though he really didn’t need to. “Rey, I’d like to take you somewhere that isn’t an office. Somewhere that could actually be considered a date.”

At this, her features softened, and there was a delighted, but calm look in her eyes that told him she was about to say yes. “I’d love to,” she told him as she stood up on the balls of her feet, then leaned forward to press another kiss to his lips. 

Ben didn’t really know what to expect from a relationship; didn’t really know what being in one meant in the long run, but he suspected it was supposed to make him feel like this. It was as if each time he kissed her, she returned to him a piece of himself he hadn’t known was missing. Some people were whole without another, some people went through life better with someone else even if they were already complete, but others did have a void in their hearts where someone else was meant to fit, and he could feel her filling his already. 

Rey’s lips were soft, tasting slightly of the lipstick she’d worn from where patches of it had stubbornly clung to her lips, but he didn’t care, he was drunk on kissing her. He didn’t even have a thought of tearing apart clothing or lowering them back to the floor — or maybe pressing them against the nearest wall — he focused solely on her mouth, and on the way she felt as her hands drifted up into his hair, how she used it to pull him down closer to her as she set herself back on the ground, and smiled into their kiss. 

_ Fuck,  _ he really was about to be a goner, wasn’t he? Or was he already falling over the edge — tempted by that great precipice she’d lead him to? 

If he had, he didn’t care. He would gladly follow this woman and her charm, her wit, and her kisses anywhere. 

Eventually, though, he did need oxygen, and he pulled back just enough so that he could breathe as he looked down at her, watching attentively as those hazel eyes flickered between his. “I thought I was doing fine before tonight,” he admitted, then when her gaze revealed a glimmer of confusion flickered through her gaze, Ben sighed. “I thought I was okay with spending every single night of my existence alone… it took this… meeting you again to realize maybe I deserve more, whether or not this works out.”

“Do you think it will?”

“Do I think what?”

“Do you think it’ll work out? Between us?” she asked, then she released her grip on his hair to tuck a strand of her own behind her ear. “I know this is our first date… a blind date of sorts… but…?”

“I think it’s possible,” he said with a nod, not wanting to jump to extreme conclusions or ideas too quickly for her to keep up. “If we want something to happen here… it will…”

Rey grinned. “Then let’s get out of here. I’m taking you home with me,” she told him with a wicked glint in her eye, then she took one of his hands in hers. “If that’s alright.”

“It’s more than fine,” he assured her, then she squeezed his hand, and released it to turn off all the equipment they’d — was used the right word? — used throughout their encounter in the news station. “But… I hate that we’ll have to take separate cars… Seems a bit silly.”

Another laugh escaped her as she shut down the green screen, then she shut off the monitor that was displaying it. “I mean, I can leave my car here overnight, I have a parking pass, but you on the other hand…” She turned to him as she shut down the camera, causing a worried thought to enter his head. “I don’t suppose you’d mind driving?”

A smirk crossed Ben’s features then, and he nodded. “I wouldn’t mind, I assure you,” he said, then as she walked around from the camera and worked on shutting off the lights near the desk and over the green screen, he cleared his throat. “But um… that camera wasn’t recording, was it? I… I wouldn’t want you to lose your job because of this.”

“No, it wasn’t, don’t worry. I would’ve had to press record,” she promised him, then she adjusted the jacket she was wearing, and took his hand in hers again. “What do you say we go back to my place then?”

“Just point the way,” he replied, then she grinned, tugging on his hand as she led him back out of the studio, and into the hallway they’d walked down to get there. 

They walked out in silence, primarily out of the fear that somehow they’d be caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing, and secondarily out of the tension that was building in the air again. Ben could feel that same thing he’d felt just before they’d kissed behind the desk brewing within him, and when his eyes happened to meet Rey’s, he knew that she could feel it, too. So he said nothing; if he said so much as one word, he’d pin her to the wall again and fuck her then and there. 

_Would that have been so terrible, though?_ He thought as they walked back into the parking lot, and he led her to his car, hers remaining completely ignored as she waited for him by the passenger side door. 

They locked eyes again as he unlocked his car, and her eyes were darker than he’d ever seen them as he watched her open her door in perfect time with his. He could feel himself growing harder again just looking at her, and he barely disguised the shiver that ran through him, watching as Rey lowered herself inside, then he followed suit. Swallowing nervously, he shut his door, and turned the engine on with the press of his finger to the start button, then he forced himself not to look at her as he backed out of the space, and took them out onto the road.

Rey, of course, was no dumb ass, and after instructing him to turn left at the first light, he could feel her eyes boring a hole into his skull. “Why can’t you look at me?”

“I’ve got to watch the road, Rey,” he protested innocently. “I’m driving.”

“Mmmhmm… I’m sure, but the light’s red, and this is a long one… so…” He felt her hand on his knee, and he took in a deep, shaky breath as she applied a bit more pressure to her touch. “Tell me why you’re really not looking at me.”

Ben let out another shuddering breath as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel, then he sighed. “Because if I do, I don’t trust myself not to pull over and… go another round.”

“What if I want you to?” she asked, shifting her hand up a little more on his thigh, causing his breath to hitch. “What if I want you to pull over? I think I owe you a favor.”

“A favor?” His voice was shakier than he wanted it to be, but he was beyond the point of caring, and the light was going to turn green at any second. “What… what favor?”

“You went down on me… but I haven’t gone down on you…” At this, her own voice gained a nervous edge to it, and he heard her own breathing shudder as she  brought her hand up to his inner thigh, just inches from where he was now achingly hard. “And Ben… I want to… I really fucking want to.”

He finally looked at her then, and both of their chests were heaving even though they’d done nothing to physically exert themselves. The tension from earlier instantly resumed itself as Rey waited patiently for an answer to the unasked question she’d given him, and he smirked again in perfect time with the red light shining on her face turning green. “Then I really want you to,” he said, then he shifted his foot back on the accelerator, and turned the car left onto the next street. 

“I’ll tell you when to pull over, then.”

“Perfect.” They then continued driving through the night, and Rey guided him down the path to her place, guiding them onto an isolated backroad before she finally told him to stop, and he pulled off to the side of the road with a nervous anticipation flooding his veins. 

Once he put the car in park, Rey gave him another wicked grin before she got out of the car, and he stumbled out after her, his pulse racing in his ears like it had the first time as he walked around to the passenger side, and took her face in his hands. “Where have you been all my life?” he asked quietly, then his lips descended on hers again, and he pressed her against the car, causing her to moan into the kiss as her hands came up to support themselves on his shoulders. 

Rey’s fingers drifted back up into his hair, making him very much aware how much he was into the way she touched him as she tugged slightly, earning herself a soft little groan from him that had her smiling against his lips as he pressed her further into the car. He had little doubt that she could feel his erection pressing against her lower abdomen as he pressed his hips against hers, and his doubt dissipated altogether when she released his hair with one hand, and slid it down his chest until she reached the waistline of his slacks. 

Ben felt as if his entire body was on fire as she reached for the button binding them, then undid his zipper in one smooth motion before she broke their kiss to stare at him for a moment. Before disappointment could sink into him at the sudden loss of contact, she leaned forward, and he could practically see her coy smile as she whispered in his ear, “Get in and move the seat back, I’m not getting on my knees in the dirt.”

Another laugh escaped him as he nodded. “Your wish is my command.” Then he reached around her for the car door handle, and opened it wordlessly. She stepped away to allow him space to open the door, then she watched him as he leaned down, and eased the seat toward the rear of the car until it was nearly touching the back seats before getting into it, and leaning back as she followed him in. 

Watching Rey crawl into his car on her knees was doing things to him he didn’t know someone would ever be capable of, and instantly, he knew this image was going to be burned into his brain as she walked on her knees between his legs until she was able to reach him again. The only sound in the car was that of their breathing as she grasped his shirt fabric in her hands, then she tugged him forward to capture his lips in one more searing kiss. 

Fuck, no one else kissed like she did. He’d realized this early on, but there was something slightly feral and a little sweet in the way she kissed, and sometimes one of those things shone through more than the other depending on the kind of mood she was in. Right then, Rey was kissing him passionately, though her soft edge wasn’t gone completely, he realized, as she swept her tongue slowly along his lower lip before pulling away. “I’m starting to wonder where you’ve been all of  _ my  _ life,” she told him, then she took her kisses down onto his neck as her hands reached back down for his slacks, and her fingers found the waistband of his boxers. 

He paid close attention to her as she began to tug the fabric down his hips, which he lifted slightly to aid her as she removed them just enough to free his cock from their confines. Though she’d already seen him before, she still took in a deep breath, and nodded more to herself than anything else before she leaned forward, and licked at his tip, causing him to gasp from the feeling. His hands gripped the side of the car and the little storage compartment between the passenger and driver’s seats as she then took him into her mouth, and he thought there was a chance he might come then and there as she slowly took him in deeper. 

“Rey…” he breathed, one of his hands finding its way into her hair as she descended on him until she couldn’t take anymore, then moved back up, instantly setting a pace that reminded him of what they’d done earlier, though not quite that intense. She glanced up at him as he fisted her hair in his hand, then tossed him a wink as she went down again, then her cheeks hollowed as she properly sucked his cock like it was what she was born to do. 

Ben’s head fell back against the seat as she did that. He’d intended not to collapse into a pile of jello, he really had, but the pleasure she was bringing him, the sheer intensity of it had him losing all sense of himself, and thus his plan of sitting back and watching this amazing woman go down on him was utterly thwarted. “Fuck, Rey…”

“Maybe later,” she teased as she pulled off of him for a moment, reaching up with a hand to stroke him at the base as she spoke, then she went back down, running her tongue from where her hand was to the tip, causing him to let out a choked sort of noise from where he couldn’t tell the origin as she laughed. Before he could say anything back to her, though, she was on him again, cheeks hollowed while her head moved up and down, and he felt his orgasm building though it felt like she’d only just started.

His breath — and quite possibly hers — fogged the windows of his car as the time passed, and the hand that wasn’t on her hair slammed against it as her tongue swirled around his tip again, and he cried out a low, guttural sound while his palm slid down the condensation coated glass. That sound spurred Rey to pick up her pace, and she moved faster as his breath came out faster, thickening the fog around them. 

By that point, he was agonizingly close, and he lost the ability to think as she went down again in time with another stroke to his base. He barely had time to warn her, barely had time to wonder if such a thing would bother her before he came into her mouth, and her name tumbled from his lips followed by a series of swears as she continued sucking his cock through it all. 

It wasn’t until he was completely limp beneath her, his breathing slowly coming back down to a normal rate that she pulled off of him, and wiped her mouth before she placed her hands on his knees, and grinned at him. “Now we’re even,” she said, then she leaned forward over him again, and placed a short, but heated kiss to his lips before she crawled off of him.

He laughed as he tugged his pants back over his hips, then he nodded. “But I think this is one scale I want to imbalance frequently,” he told her as she turned to reach for the car door. 

“I’d love to,” she replied, then she looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she caught sight of the hand print he’d left on the condensation coated window, and a giggle left her lips. “It’s like Titanic.”

His eyes rolled back in his head as his cheeks flushed crimson. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

“Guess we know what they were doing now,” she mused, her voice taking on a suggestive tone, then she opened the door, and let in the cool night air. “So… take me home?” 

Another smile rose to Ben’s face, then he followed her out of the car, and gave her one last kiss before returning to the driver’s seat. He spared the stars a quick glance before he got in, thanking whatever forces there were out there for the night he’d had before he got in beside her, surprised to find she’d already readjusted the seat by the time he sat down beside her. After wiping the bulk of the condensation off the front window of the car, he reached for her hand with one of his while the other started the car, then gripped the steering wheel, taking them out on the road as her fingers laced through with his. 

“I take it you’re not mad about losing a hundred dollars?” she asked cheekily as they drove back down the road to her apartment.

He waited until the road straightened out before he spared her a glance, and squeezed her hand. “Rey, I would lose a thousand dollars if every night could be like tonight,” he admitted, then they both fell into fits of giggles until she had to offer him instructions again. 

*

The next morning, Ben woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating beneath his ear, and he groaned as he rolled over in Rey’s bed. Well, he rolled over as much as he could, given that one of his arms was pinned beneath her as she slept, and he grasped his phone in one hand, not bothering to check the caller ID as he answered the call. “Hello?” he asked, wincing at how sleep drenched his voice was. 

“I take it I’m about to be one hundred dollars richer?” his mother’s voice replied, and instantly his eyes were wide enough they nearly fell out of their sockets, and his entire body was on alert. 

“Mom, I—” he stuttered, tempted to press his palm into his head, but it was trapped beneath a still sleeping Rey, and he didn’t want to wake her up just because he’d embarrassed himself. Lowering his voice, he tried again, “I’m sorry I didn’t call, we just… We got to um… talking.”

“I don’t need all the details, Ben, I’m just glad you had fun.”

Ben groaned as he slammed his head back into the pillow. “Just please don’t say, ‘I told you so,’ I don’t think my ego could take that right now.”

Leia barked a laugh in response, then she sighed. “Ben, I’m happy for you. I won’t say anything you don’t want me to.”

“Thank you.”

“And don’t worry about the money. Keep it, I think you’ll be needing it in the future.”

He snorted quietly. “Thanks, mom.”

“You’re welcome, don’t say I never did anything for you.”

“I won’t. I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Goodbye, Ben.”

“Bye, mom,” he said, then he hung up the phone, and set it down before turning back into Rey, and scooping her up successfully in both arms as he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. “Good morning.”

Rey groaned softly, and she turned her head away from the early morning light that shone in through an overcast sky outside, staring at him out of the corner of her hooded eyes. “Good morning.”

“I didn’t wake you up just now, did I?” 

She nodded. “Yeah, but don’t worry, I thought it was amusing hearing you try not to be obvious about what we did last night to your mum.”

A full body shiver ran through him at the mention of the night before. Once they’d gotten back to her place, he’d fulfilled that fantasy he’d had when they’d walked out of her workplace against the wall of her kitchen. They’d nearly turned the stove on by accident several times, but by the end of it, Ben had never come harder in his life. 

After that, though thoroughly exhausted, Ben put Rey back into debt again when he ate her out at the edge of her bed -- and that time it had been  _ him  _ who got on his knees. When she finished, though, they didn’t do much after that, they simply shed their uncomfortable day clothes, stripping down to their underwear before they held one another in their bed, and talked late into the night about anything and everything. By the time it was over, he felt as if no time had passed since the last time they’d seen one another. It felt like they’d been put on pause, and the night before, they’d finally pressed play, and talked until it seemed the sun was threatening to rise.

If the time on his phone was anything to go by — half past six — they’d only slept for two hours before his mother’s phone call. Why she called him so early, he didn’t know, but Ben did know for certain they both had work to do that day, and Rey was due at the station in just an hour. As much as he wanted to lounge around with her in her bed all day, he couldn’t. 

“Don’t worry, Ben,” Rey assured him a minute later. “I’m sure Maz is going to call me any minute, too wondering why we left so quickly. Especially if your mother tells her you didn’t come home last night.”

“Oh god,” he groaned as she turned over in his arms so that he could see her, and she laughed brilliantly as he finally allowed a palm to slam into his forehead. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not,” she replied, then she leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. “It was worth it.”

“You think so?” Ben asked, feeling delight surge through him as his eyes drifted down to her lips. 

Rey gave him a firm nod. “Yeah, I do,” she replied, then she leaned forward, and kissed him. It was soft and gentle, that kiss, making him feel excitement again for the future even though everything was still so young between them. Each kiss they shared felt like a promise, like every time they did it they were both agreeing to many, many more, and he had a feeling that “more,” there, didn’t just mean kissing — or even anything sexual — it meant everything. 

“Mmm,” he moaned against her, and Rey pulled away for a second to giggle before she kissed him again lazily, and Ben had never in his life felt so warm and content than he did in that moment, tangled up in Rey’s sheets, both of them wearing nothing but boxers and underwear. 

In that split second, he knew, they couldn’t go to work that day. Work would have to wait, Rey was more important. With that in mind, he pulled away from the kiss, and grinned at her. “What do you say we take the day off and only leave this bed to eat?” 

She snorted her laughter, and smacked his chest lightly with her palm. “We can’t, you know we can’t,” she told him, then she sighed. “If my replacement weren’t taking his vacation days, I would, Ben, I really would…”

Disappointment filled him then, but he nodded, and held her a little more tightly in his arms. “Okay… another time then.”

“I’m free on Saturday.”

Delight returned to his face. “It’s a date,” he promised her.   


“It’s a date,” she confirmed, then she kissed him again, pressing him back into the mattress as she rolled lazily on top of him, and deepened the kiss, driving him insane as his arms wrapped around her waist, and he held her close. 

As they kissed in the early morning light, he heard the rain outside begin to fall, and he nearly broke the kiss to laugh as he remembered her prediction from the previous morning.  _ A five percent chance of showers _ , well it seemed that those unlikely odds — like his own from the night before — had been beaten, and he’d never been more glad to lose to such a slim chance. 

Maybe he hadn’t needed anyone, maybe he could’ve gone on alone, but lying in Rey’s bed with her on top of him, kissing him so gently he could’ve cried, he knew life was going to be much better now that he wasn’t, and if he could help it… He would never be alone again.


End file.
